Underrated and Miscategorized Women in Music

I started to notice things about Taylor not long ago, all males (well most) seem to dislike her, a lot of people actually, but why? Well, as with most people who are very independent and self reliant in the music industry, the media loves to put her in a "don't take her seriously, she's a silly girl" category. I won't go into all the problems with the media and music industry and how the general public isn't even aware that they are being controlled and told who to like and dislike at any given moment based on who does what the record labels tell them to. That is a whole different issue, but I want people to know about it.

Okay, back to Taylor. We are told that all she writes about is her ex-boyfriends. Well some of her songs are about that, some aren't. But even if that were true, there is no argument here, saying you don't like her just because she writes about her love life, would mean that you literally can't like any artist. If there is a secular artist out there that doesn't have at least one song about their love life, I have yet to find them. Then people say that it's because the guys are also famous, we know who they are about, therefore it's not fair. Well, that means no one is allowed to like Poison, or the song "every rose has it's thorn" because Bret Michaels wrote that about Pamela Anderson, I could give a very long list of other songs than are about other famous people but that isn't the point. The point is, why is it wrong of Taylor to do something that everyone else does? There are several articles about this so I won't go into it to much. But one of the reasons, is as I mentioned above, the "industry" isn't happy about her being so independent. But also it's because when you look at Taylor, you see what looks like a sweet blonde girl, she looks naive, she looks like the type of girl that guys want to date. Not only because she is cute, but because she looks like the type of girl that would put up with a lot from a guy because she wants to have a boyfriend.

But that is not at all how Taylor is. Her songs crush that hope and perception of the cute, innocent looking girl being also dumb and submissive. I know that sounds sexist against males but I don't mean it that way, not all guys dislike Taylor, but what I'm saying does truly apply to the type of guys that "hate" her, the guys who get online and type comments on youtube and forums and "feel sorry" for any guy that dates her. People love to get online and defend those poor rich and famous people like John Mayer and act like it's because they are caring and empathetic. Her writing a song about them doesn't really hurt them, there are worse things someone can do to someone else. (it's not that bad, trust me) If Chris Brown can still have a career after what he did, then I'm sure Taylor isn't the "bad guy" here, destroying guys she dated simply by writing her truth about it.

Taylor writes her own songs, which should give her more credibility than most artists these days, but instead people want to complain about the content of those songs, or the fact that she doesn't sing like a diva. Well she doesn't want to and she shouldn't try to, I'd rather listen to Taylor sing than most "divas" aka "yellers". Taylor is a writer, she wants you to pay attention to what the song says and what it means. If she was a diva or shouted the whole thing, most people would miss the song's meaning entirely, because that's what usually happens with those songs.

And Taylor as a guest coach on "the voice" (and this is the thing that made me full on love her), she told a girl exactly what I had said but she worded it better. She told a girl to not "yell" the whole song. In a nutshell, she said, if you start out at belting a song at the beginning, you have nowhere else to go but down. If I could find that advice, I'd post it daily to everything I could. To sing a song as if you only just want to impress people, is disrespectful to the song and to music in general, most people who do this want people to be impressed, they sacrifice the song and it's meaning in order to make people impressed with them. I have a big problem with it. Taylor understands that, she said that the audience has a reaction emotionally to a song based on how you sing it, you have to (usually) start out soft, and you sing the song the way the song's emotions tell you to, in order to properly tell the story to the listener. She was so right. She is so intelligent. If someone can find that clip from "the voice" please send it to me.

Misogyny and singing style aside, there actually are a lot of Taylor songs that aren't about her ex boyfriends.

My personal favorites are the songs "mean" and "safe and sound" of course you could say the latter is a love song, but it isn't necessarily. It was written for the hunger games, which I haven't seen but the message in the song isn't just shallow, it's not about wanting to just date someone. It's about making someone feel safe in a dangerous and harsh world, even though the hunger games is just a movie, this song is beautiful and relatable. It could be sung to anyone about anything that hurts them. I love it, actually. And you hear about her using auto tune, and maybe she does sometimes, but I don't hear it at all in "safe and sound". And the way she is singing in this song is very difficult to do (I know, I tried). Way more difficult than yelling. And "mean" is a very accurate description of a bully and of how it feels to be a victim. It's the one of the best "I'll show you, I'll prove you wrong" songs that I've heard, and it happened. Taylor did exactly what she said she would in the song.

Not only does Taylor write her own lyrics, she writes most of the music for her songs, she can play the guitar, banjo, ukulele, and piano. She started out as a country artist and a lot of people bash her for "going pop". I'm not too sure about that, because I don't think Taylor, or any artist should be tied down to a genre, really. I think people should write the music they want to and if it fits with a genre by the time it's finished, so be it. But I don't really agree with writing a song with a genre in mind. That isn't how I write, and it's not really how our heart works. There shouldn't really be these big walls blocking artists from writing a certain song just because it isn't "country" enough, or isn't "metal" enough. Music is art and art doesn't really fit into boxes. Taylor is such a smart, and caring person that it's very difficult for anyone that learns about her, or pays attention to what she says, to not like her and respect her for all the progress she has made for women. She dresses so cute, and wears red lipstick and is very girly, but at the same time she is such a strong, independent woman, and a very good role model for young girls. I have so much to say about Taylor, and will probably continue to admire her for lots of reasons.